Inter Miami hires ex-Barcelona, Arsenal exec Sanllehí

Former Barcelona and Arsenal director of soccer Raúl Sanllehí will be a part of Inter Miami CF as co-president alongside Xavier Asensi, overseeing features of the sporting facet and executing the possession’s technique of participant growth from the academy to the primary staff.

Sanllehí will formally function president of soccer operations upon receipt of his U.S. work authorization.

“I’ve a mix of expertise between leagues with LaLiga and the Premier League, and sorts of elite golf equipment that play Champions League yearly, like Barcelona or Arsenal, so I’ve an enormous imaginative and prescient about soccer,” Sanllehí instructed ESPN. “I’ve a really clear mannequin by which I imagine that golf equipment ought to be primarily based and develop from there. The possession desires to show this membership into a worldwide soccer powerhouse, and that is one thing that I embrace fully.”

The Spaniard beforehand labored because the director of soccer at Barcelona from 2008-2019, taking part in an integral position within the staff throughout the growth of present Miami gamers Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets, Luis Suárez and Jordi Alba. Sanllehí can even reunite with head coach Gerardo Martino, after being a part of the staff that employed the Argentine at Barcelona in 2013.

Sanllehí additionally served as head of soccer at Arsenal from 2018-2020, and most not too long ago as CEO of Spanish membership Actual Zaragoza from 2022-2024. Now, Sanllehí desires to develop Inter Miami’s academy to supply the sort of facet he noticed whereas at Barcelona.

“I bear in mind Johan Cruyff in a press convention when he was explaining the explanation why he believed a lot within the academy,” Sanllehí recalled. “One reporter requested him, ‘so what you are saying is that the academy must play like the primary staff?’ And he mentioned, ‘no, really I am saying the alternative. I am saying that the primary staff must play just like the academy.’

“And you do not obtain that in two or three years. That is over time, as a result of that you must plant the seeds after which shield them in order that they develop.

“And that was the key of success of most likely one of the best staff within the historical past of Barcelona with all of the gamers that you realize, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, Messi, all of them had been there. And so they had been all coming from the academy.

“For those who look in historical past, once more, all the primary golf equipment which have been legendary in Europe, they had been all primarily based on the academy gamers. So I actually imagine that that is the trail.”

The Herons at the moment boast a number of academy gamers within the senior staff, with Leo Alfonso most not too long ago making headlines for scoring the staff’s profitable purpose in further time towards the Philadelphia Union on June 15.

Benjamin Cremaschi and David Ruiz additionally performed an integral position within the victory, whereas usually that includes in Inter Miami’s beginning XI below Martino.

On the opposite finish, Asensi will proceed to handle the staff’s industrial side as president of enterprise operations. He joined Inter Miami in 2021 from Barcelona, serving to the membership triple revenues. His promotion permits for the 2 to work in unison on totally different ends of the staff’s development.